This year, with a new GT coordinator, the students in the GT pullout in the elementary schools are being graded on their work. This is new to our district. The teacher says it gives the students motivation to work hard and be accountable. But I wonder if it, instead, keeps the students from enjoying and maybe even challenging themselves in the enrichment activities, and whether it just encourages perfectionism. Also, I'm not sure if the grades will show up on report cards or not (and it's not like there is a GPA in elementary school), but if so, is it fair to grade the students on extra material when they are still required to complete all the regular work?

Just curious what other people think. Instinctively I don't like it at all and my DS finds it disappointing to get wrapped up in a fun project and do all kinds of work on his own, just to find that he was graded and that his teacher found fault with his efforts.

I get that students should get graded on their work in general and they should learn to deal with disappointment on occasion. But I wonder if it's necessary in a class specifically designed to encourage and enrich the educational experience.

mnmom23 - I'm with you - I don't think it's a good idea. Mind you, my DD is a perfectionist so I'm kind of "anti-grades" lol. I cringe at the idea of her gifted math pull out being graded. I think it would totally kill the joy.

(omg, how did I get to 454 posts?)

Sorry (a-hem). Resume thread...

I don't think grades are good either, but our full-time gifted program gives grades. It starts in 4th grade and they give grades in the regular 4th grade too. I think it's really weird!

The pull-out program our ds was in had them, and I think they are a-ok. The kids had expectations just the same as they have in regular classrooms: project work, behavioral expectations, participation expectations etc.


Kids in our school district were not supposed to be penalized in their regular classroom for the time and work they missed due to gifted pullout.


I think if you argue it's not necessary in the gifted pullout, you might also argue it's not necessary (or motivating) in the regular classroom - for the very same reason (it doesn't encourage or enrich the educational experience).

The first elementary school my children attended didn't give out grades. The second one my older dd attends also doesn't give out grades (both schools did give feedback and placed an emphasis on student's reflection on their work); the second elementary my younger dd attends gives the traditional letter grades. The schools that didn't give grades didn't give them because they felt letter grades focused students on extrinsic motivation and they wanted to encourage children to be intrinsically motivated. I really like that concept - but oddly enough, all three of my children really like getting letter grades and that extrinsic motivation helped spur them on to achieve at a higher level in school.

polarbear

Our school district tends to be high-performing, lots of Tiger moms, etc. Our gifted program is very competitive; you get the picture.
The gifted teacher emailed everyone a few weeks ago saying that the kids could retake the spelling test and receive partial extra credit. We had no time to help my son study and he got a 75%.
Part of me thought, who cares? It's 4th grade! But obviously other parents really complained and that is why the gifted teacher did it. Because the grades were so important to them in 4th grade! Crazy.
We talked about it and finally decided to have him retake it since it's always good to try to get extra credit in life. He got a 100%.

Sounds to me as though the teacher isn't being thoughtful about formative (feedback-as-you-go) vs. summative (final-see-what-you-learned) assessment.

If your DS is not getting adequate feedback as he goes along, he has no way to know he is supposed to change course. Ideally, a teacher should give that feedback, so by the time the summative assessment comes, the kid knows where he probably stands, and it's just a final check.

This is a part of course design that is often overlooked. I really believe in grades as a form of feedback to the student-- if they are used well. If used poorly, they can feel like punishment and be very off-putting.

DeeDee

Thanks for the feedback. This year the GT pull-out is for an hour every day for 10 days and then they have 20 days with no pull-out while the teacher goes to the other schools. Each 10-day unit has an enrichment theme during which they do various projects related to the theme. Their work is completely unrelated to classroom work and, like I said, they are always responsible for all the content and assignments that they miss in the regular classroom while they are gone. And, if they miss the pull-out class because they were sick or whatever, the teacher does not seem to go back to explain what was missed.

Anyway, I didn't bring it up when I met briefly with the teacher a month or so ago, but it was nagging at me. So thanks for the input!